The city of Poplar Bluff may be able to deal with a condemned downtown parking garage and several other big-ticket items thanks to $3.4 million in COVID relief funds.
The final rules have come out for American Rescue Plan Act money, and it can be spent on just about anything, said city manager Matt Winters, except paying debt, retirement benefits and some other smaller items.
“This is one time, a kind of once in a lifetime kind of thing, that we’ve really given a lot of discussion to,” Winters said Monday during a regular meeting of the city council.
At the top of the city’s list — after previously approved, one-time raises for employees — is to make several upgrades in the downtown area and the purchase of new basketball courts for the Black River Coliseum.
Estimates gathered by the city say about $200,000 would allow for the top of the parking garage to be removed and the removal of a badly deteriorated building in the 200 block of South Main Street. Included in that cost would be clean up of city-owned vacant lots between the parking garage and Fire Station 1 for the creation of a green space.
“We have a lot of momentum going downtown,” Winters said, adding this would help with that. “This is something I would like to see us get done this summer, to have it ready and going for when the school district moves in (on South Main Street) and these businesses that are renovating open. I think the parking’s going to be needed.”
The long-shuttered downtown parking garage is beyond repair, Winters said, adding that he has consulted multiple contractors.
It was closed in 2017 on the recommendations of a structural engineer. Shifting of as much as 3/4 of an inch was found in one 15-foot crack extending along the north wall near the Poplar Street entrance, according to a structural engineer with Horner Shifrin. Daylight could be seen through the crack, with only corroded reinforcing steel connecting the concrete slab to the support beam.
The structural engineer recommended closing portions of the parking garage because the reinforcing steel is the only remaining connection from the slab to the beam in an area near the east entrance. The rebar is corroded due to weathering from deicing salts, a report at the time stated. The structure is more than 40 years old.
The city would also like to spend between $500,000-$600,000 to purchase three removable basketball courts that could be used in the Black River Coliseum.
The Coliseum currently has one court which is difficult to set up and cannot be separated into the multiple spaces needed for a tournament, officials have said previously.
“Tourism is a big deal for a lot of this money and that’s where a lot of this money is going to go,” Winters said.
The basketball courts are an idea that has been discussed at length with park department director Lanny Corcimiglia.
“A big tourism draw would be to get new basketball courts for the Coliseum,” Winters said. “The benefits to that are going to be pretty big for our community, I think... The Coliseum could be used a whole lot more.”
Corcimiglia estimated that a tournament night could bring in 160 players with an additional 400 spectators, all spending money on concessions at the event, as well as at retail, restaurants and gas stations in the city.
The courts would pay for themselves in what is recouped through local businesses, he believes.
Youth sports are also something that thrives, even when other areas may see losses during a recession, Corcimiglia said.
“We wouldn’t let this fail,” he told the council. “We will do whatever needs to be done. We’ll work with the city to get it done.”
Members of the Northside Community Center also approached the council about a previous request that recovery funds be used to help with needed repairs at the location.
“What are you planning to do with the small-scale projects, the smaller communities, to make them build themselves up as well,” asked Corretta Bishop, Northside technical and programming director.
Winters said he had provided the group with information on additional state grant money that might be available to them, and that he has spoken with Mayor Steve Davis about what the city might be able to do to help. Nothing has been finalized, he said.
Winters also discussed using the funds on delayed maintenance projects at the Coliseum and for stormwater issues.